A new RRI analysis reveals that secure tenure for Indigenous Peoples and local communities — a key climate change mitigation strategy — is notably absent from the Paris Agreement and country INDCs.

What are the INDCs, and why do they matter?

In advance of the negotiations that resulted in the Paris Agreement, national governments were asked to submit Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the UN outlining their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These INDCs provide an important tool for countries to hold one another accountable to meeting the Agreement’s ambitious goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

As world leaders sign the Paris Agreement on April 22, Earth Day, key considerations for Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP/LCs) are notably absent from the final agreement. The country-specific INDCs also lack strong commitments to secure community land rights — despite the fact that these rights are critical to protecting and restoring forests.

What did we find?

RRI conducted an analysis of 161 INDCs submitted on behalf of 188 countries, and found that just 21 countries included clear commitments to implement community-based tenure or natural resource management strategies as part of their national plans. Importantly, many of the largest forested countries with high rates of deforestation — such as Brazil, DRC, and Indonesia — did not include significant commitments to expand tenure rights or natural resource management in their INDCs.

Only one country, Cambodia, set a measurable target for expanding IP/LC tenure rights, explicitly committing to an expansion of community-based tenure through the reclassification of 2 million hectares of forests as Community Forests.

While studies have shown that securing community tenure rights is a low-cost strategy for significantly increasing the carbon storage capacity of forests, the vast majority of the global community is missing a major opportunity to commit to this proven climate change solution.

How do secure land rights actually help mitigate climate change?

Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the best guardians of the world’s forests, which act as an enormous carbon sink — the storage potential of which could increase by as much as 3 to 5 gigatons of carbon per year if reforestation efforts were encouraged. By preventing changes in land use and land cover, IP/LCs play a crucial role in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Research also shows that when IP/LCs have legally recognized and enforceable rights, both deforestation and carbon emissions can be significantly lower compared with areas outside of community forests. For example, community and indigenous forests in Brazil store 36 percent more carbon per hectare, and emit 27 times less carbon dioxide from deforestation than outside forests.

What now?

Countries still have time to strengthen their INDCs by including specific, measurable, and robust tenure and natural resource rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities in their national climate change mitigation strategies. Concrete goals protecting the rights of IP/LCs in the INDCs are essential if the global community wishes to see progress on protecting our climate.

Read the full report, “Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Tenure in the INDCs: Status and Recommendations.” The report was launched at the Ford Foundation and UNDP event, “Forests for Climate,” on April 21, 2016.